Between tomorrow and Saturday, the update will go live. Download links to the original Xeops will not be taken down however.

The SSBFE egyptian texture pack (thank. you. so. much.) weights like 160mb (2x size the original Xeops lite dl pack, mind this) due to the very hi-res textures with detail variants. It's not S3TC but either way it might be an issue online; I'm still not sure how much lively is the UT coop community though... but either way the original Xeops will always be available. Hi-res textures are absolutely fucking amazing in Unreal, otherwise.I'm still tweaking performance. Slowdowns will be likely a thing but at least they happen rarely (but then 227-features-filled levels also run like shit so it must be me?). Hopefully all the shortcomings you listed from the original version have been taken care of. Get hype.

NOTE: Regarding the decals, the EXU ones are not controlled by oldskool, so the permanent decals setting is useless. Instead, you have much better control throughout the EXU.ini.Open it and search for MaxDecals= (should be one of the first few lines). By default it's set at 1000, meaning that no more than 1000 decals can appear in the level. If you have performance problems, be it in Xeops or in EXU, lower that value down as much as you want. Whatever you do, don't put it at infinite - if the decal amount goes beyond 1116, saving will crash the game (this is a mysterious Unreal bug that happens when any actor type goes beyond that 1116 in a level).

Aw yeah I'm uploading.There will be three packages +1:-XeopsRequisite: all the setup and EXU stuff needed (140MB). If you have EXU2 v7.2 running ignore this-XeopsMain: the original version of Xeops. Both fixes included in (92MB).-XeopsDorado: the new version! (191MB)-RMusic_Player: the alternate version of RMusic in case the EXU one doesn't work.

XEOPS DORADO IS FINALLY LIVEDownload links are in the main post. Just download the XeopsDorado package. If you don't have anything EXU, go get the XeopsRequisite too.Old Xeops version is under XeopsMain; if RMusic_Player doesn't work, get the version linked below the packages.Lastly, if you have RMusic_Player.SDK and you play the new Xeops, get rid of that package.

MAY THE SUN SHINE OVER UNREAL FOR MUCH MORE

SYSTEM CHANGES

Map now uses a unique Gametype.

With the use of the new Gametype, the RMusic_PlayerSDK package isn't necessary anymore.

Translator image has been enlarged, with message lines being longer as a result. All messages will now fit in.

Special event messages are non-translucent and are red colored.

Pickup messages are non-translucent and are orange colored.

Feralidragon's CSMCXExtras package is in with full force. Comes with more performing emitters and a lot of cool stuff!

MAP CHANGES

Massive retexturing overhaul. Textures provided from Serious Sam BFE, best and most accessible source of Egypt imagery there is, so thanks Croteam!

Various additions to the general map geometry.

One more [REDACTED FLIGHT DRONE] appears 10 seconds after the first one you encounter is destroyed, Hard/Unreal difficulty only.

The Horus pool courtyard has now a special enemy spawn (like most other areas have already) during the second phase of the level.

Brutes have been removed, and they're replaced by the map's main Behemoth enemies in the respective difficulties.

Various spawnrate/quantity changes to battles that make use of the Spawner System.

Changed some of the spawning times for certain enemies in harder difficulties (generally spawning earlier).

The pre-Ziggurat battle has now a forcefield which blocks the way down. It only opens up once the miniboss event is triggered.

Some items' placements have been shuffled around.

Three more secrets added, totaling the count to ten.

Made pathing a lot better in the pre-Ziggurat area, especially on the long staircase.

The catacomb door that's opened by shooting the hidden button works like this now - you shoot the button, a trigger around that door is unlocked.

Various small edits to many translator and player messages. Translator logs on ground also glow now.

Various performance tweaks, including the removal of unnecessary decorations and emitters.

[REDACTED FLIGHT DRONE]'s orb streams are quadrupled (32 orbs instead of 8 are being shot now) and are slightly more accurate

[REDACTED BEAST]'s friendly fire scaled down to zero.

[REDACTED BEAST]'s collision radius slightly decreased.

[REDACTED BEAST]'s health decreased from 380 to 280.

Rocket speed of the final boss (except third phase) increased.

Final boss' firebomb projectiles are faster and deal more damage.

Final boss melee damage increased from 50 to 100.

Final boss' single Skaarj projectiles deal 8 more damage, from 20 to 28. They also fly slightly faster, and there are 2 more.

Final boss now shoots six homing fireball instead of eight.

Final boss has his own skin (for all due respect).

Fixed a game-breaking bug with the final boss in Coop mode.

Final boss will let out loud event sounds after each one of his phases is defeated.

Patchlog is in the main post too. Also some content in the mainpost got changed - namely no more difficulty briefing (gameplay got a bit more straightforward) and some story changes regarding items to reflect the in-game item changes.

I did whatever I could to tweak performance and geometry but I can't do anything more and I can't stress myself over a single map for this longer (Dorado version took like the same amount of time to make the original release, jesus). But god damn it looks absolutely amazing and it's super fun now. Posted three shots at the end of the main post.

Be sure to use EXUOpenGL (if you need help with the settings, I have posted mine in the release readme); if decals are too much, you can change in the EXU.ini the MaxDecals= property: should be set to 1000 by default. Lower it as much as you want/need.

Here's a list of things to keep in mind - new features and tips:

Xeops now makes use of a subclass gametype of oldskool. This is done to get rid of the RMusic_Player SDK package (which had the gametype for the old Xeops - now its code is part of the Xeops' current gametype, like EXU2BI does), for having a better translator image (all the messages will fit the screen) and for more readable event/pickup messages (non-translucent, red/orange colors).

CSMCXExtras by Feralidragon. This package has been solely used in multiplayer maps, Xeops should be the first SP one to make use of them. Provides smoke emitters and a series of really cool light actors that have been used for the Ziggurat's interior!

See for yourself the lighting impact on high resolution textures! I don't know if you need S3TC turned on - the textures go up to 2048 and are extremely detailed upclose (also thanks to detailtextures) - but the editor loads them normally in software rendering, which is unable to do otherwise with proper S3TC images.

The Chainsaw has slightly larger range and its damage has been upgraded for both firemodes. The swipe can kill regular Krall in one hit on lower difficulties. Useful in the early stages of the game, and against Flies.

You have two Automags from the beginning. The amount of ammo you can find and have is the same (200) so the real advantage here is the higher ROF. If you don't like recharging, just switch weapon back and forth and the Automags are back to 20 ammo. Shoot at the heads for more damage always!

Quadshot's damage has been buffed beyond double. The original was like, 5 per single bullet, this one does 13 per single bullet, so almost 120-140 damage upclose? Definitely a huge upgrade. Also the recharge time is now EXTREMELY shortened. Downside is the ammo quantity is lower - each pack nets you 8 ammo instead of 15, Quadshot can have up to 80 ammo rather than 150. This is the only proper ammo change done to a weapon in the Dorado version.

Shock Rifle works better as a support weapon. The beam is stronger, can damage more if shot at the heads; if you don't want to waste the Rifle ammo, then use the beams. The secondary fire is faster and does more damage but by itself it's worthless; if anything you only use it as a setup for the shock combo. The shock combo here has WAY bigger radius and can deal above 500 damage, enough to kill many times of enemies in one go. Make sure to lure the bastards together. Remember that it's harder to pull off shock combos due to the orb's faster speed, and the ammo consumption for the combo is higher.

Pulse Gun's primary fire is even stronger and a good replacement to the Minigun. Secondary fire has been buffed to 7B Plasma Rifle's standards. No more Burned damage, meaning it can work against anyone. It's still a secret weapon, akin to the Laser Gun in SS BFE.

The Ripper blades fly faster; the primary fire has been buffed to reward skillful players: the damage is the same, but the headshot damage is way stronger. Secondary fire has better speed and more damage, you'll probably use it every now and then.

With more ammo and more firing speed, the special weapon should shine a bit more. Krall Seers aren't anymore resistant to it but the phase 2 enemies and the boss (who's outright immune to it for story reasons) aren't exactly the best targets for that gun. It's very braindead to use otherwise.

Svarog Incinerator replaces the Flak Cannon. 400 ammo max, ammo packs (chemical boxes shaped like the Flak boxes) net you 40 ammo. It's based on the RFPC: the primary fire shoots streams of minirockets (each rocket does 48 damage); very strong but not good at long range and Behemoths resist it. The secondary fire is a direct fireball that deals 130 damage to the target and anything nearby; the fireball's trail also damages enemies. It consumes 15 ammo per shot, has moderate ROF (higher than the RFPC's secondary fire) and does Burned damage - meaning the Krall Seers resist it, and the last boss is immune to it. The weapon owns if you can find the ammo, I'm sure you'll love it.

The Rifle does 80 base damage, 240 base headshot damage, and the headshot itself will work against EVERYONE (fuck that BisBoss=True "immunity").

Minigun was already strong enough, so I tripled its RNG bonus damage only.

All enemies have been moderately buffed to catch up with the weapons buffs. In terms of health, the player is easily more punishable now, so be careful at every single battle - don't underestimate anyone, including those Behemoths! This time around however, due to the weapons' improved damage, you'll spend less ammo overall - even on Unreal difficulty you don't need to worry about running out of stuff anymore. More freedom and choice to the players to shoot with the weapon they want.

For those who enter the catacombs on the left hand side and are stuck in the first room, check the corner with the Clips and look above - you'll see something. Shoot it, then walk to the white door.

Three more secrets have been added, totaling the count to 10. One is in the catacombs, another is in the Ziggurat, the third is in the Cheope palace and requires something located in another secret area.

Damage hit effects for all enemies have been activated, which means you can see special hit effects if you hit an enemy with a damagetype that it is weak or resistant too; it also plays a distinct sound. If it's weak, you'll see red sparks; if it's resistant, you should see yellow loud sparks; if it's immune the sparks should be even brighter and louder. Behemoths resist explosive damage (i.e. Svarog's primary), the large Krall Seers resist Burned damage (Gasbags and Svarog's secondary), the second phase enemies resist Burned and Frozen damage and the final boss is outright immune to those two. The large flight drones can be easily taken down with the Quadshot or Minigun.

Might as well mention this - something that you may not notice if you don't replay the map: if certain translator messages are not read (more like not triggered), the main character will do different remarks at certain points of the game. For example if you don't trigger the message that mentions the Gasbags, the main character will mention how he's surprised they are friendly and call them balloon things.

Remember that the final area of the catacombs (the two rooms that have the exit to the mini-pyramid square), has a button on the walls that unlocks the entrances to the catacombs, both sides. There are two buttons, one in each side of the area, and they do the same thing (once you press one, the other can't be triggered). This also unlocks a certain secret area that leads you to a weapon.

Bugs are all listed in the readme. Blame the engine for those invisible brushes, I have no idea how to get rid of those completely. On the upside, the map now loads in the editor with dynamic lights on.

Holy shit, can't promise I'll be playing soon given all the stuff going on (I barely managed to get back into mapping a week ago for the first time in months, gotta keep that going), but this seems to be among the best stuff (which always requires some commitment/time) I will eventually get around to savouring

Nali: Magic or Telekinesis

Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

Played through the new version. The combat pacing is definitely better with the powered up weapons and slightly buffed enemies (but the weapons definitely overshadow that comparatively), it's faster and more dynamic with less motivation to camp somewhere now you can cut through enemy groups much quicker and can't facetank as much if you get cornered. The new textures fit well and improve the visuals somewhat, and I didn't really notice the removed stuff. The projectile tweaks help stuff like visibility and the translator/message tweaks make it feel complete. While I liked it the old version almost feels like a beta in comparison to this one.

I think I owe you another assessment since my former comments had some negative aspects higlighted Well, now, I think this map is really epic. It is still challenging (in a good kind of way), but definitely a faster and imo more thrilling experience (even though it still took me 2 hours on Medium with all prior knowledge!). The Svarog Incinerator is so satisfying, almost OP.

I found cutting the immunity made it more fun as well. But I do think that having immunities could offer a more tactical and interesting approach, if the immunities were better distributed, so not every enemy can be hit by every weapon (and for each enemy a different weapon), but not that half your weaponry becomes useless.

The re-texturing was also worth it. Hats off, you really outdid yourself and Im glad you responded so well to the feedback. Im really looking forward to future episodes of this series.

This is truly an impressive map. I've already heaped loads of praise on it in Discord, but wanted to post here as well. Anyone who likes SP aught to try it, even if they aren't into EXU stuff. It's got a really really cool aesthetic, some really huge surprises, and solid gameplay with delightful changes to stock weapons to make them feel really powerful (but without being overpowered).

Man it feels really good when you look back at your map and say "fuck, it's great", even if it's something that may not last forever because of how gaming meta evolves over years, new and possible better ideas showing up and so on.

All I wanted was the most complete and satisfying standalone single map in Unreal, perfecting every category (ok technical performance is not the best but that's more about engine limitations and rendering issues). It would be the best thing ever if a mappack follows Xeops with the same kind of consistent quality, though I know that's very hard and absolutely stressful to do. G59 is almost striving to be this, and handling that one is difficult already.

I'm not sure how it's going to feel playing anything else Unreal now, especially with the regular gameplay - the thought of having a DP and an Automag with two Pupae in front of me make me like go "here we go with this again". Can't believe how in the course of making this level I now totally hate the DP and anything that feels clunky and slow because of charging mechanics or because the weapon damage feels like having no impact.

I'm not going to update this map anymore unless a sequel is being released, though I want to say that I made it look even nicer because apparently if you put the detailtextures as macrotextures, you get an effect that's very similar to bumpmapping (and S3TC, depends on the texture). Looks AMAZING but maybe a bit too out of its world in Unreal.

Definitely a vast improvement from the previous version, max ammo counts being the most significant factor. I still think the quadshot does not lend itself to about 60-70% of combat for the entire map, but it still has it moments and I would definitely use it in most close quarter combat situations which is good.

I'm currently in the process of finishing it up on Unreal difficulty. I have just now returned to the starting area for the second time and I'll soon pass the area where I was "jebaited". I might practice a few areas and upload a no-death playthough of this map on "Unreal" difficulty when time permits.

Looking forward to that, as long as you are mindless and hyper aggressive it shouldn't be hard on Unreal difficulty; tried the best to design a gameplay that doesn't suddenly throw enemies right next to you or where a single mistake could potentially fuckup the entire playthrough. Simply keep up with reflexes and fast pace and there you go, job done. Some secrets could even be skipped.

The Quadshot is what it is, I couldn't buff it to the point that it would kill regular enemies in one shot. Even in the SS games the shotguns started to be useless rather quickly. Only Painkiller managed to make the shotgun justice (but that's because every enemy there dies in nothing and every other weapon is so awkward to use, combined with the game's TERRIBLE hit effects/impact).

Finished on Unreal difficulty, and I must say that the changes in gameplay is definitely growing on me. Although I still think there is always room for improvement to balance the entire weapon arsenal, this is definitely a solid attempt at creating an alternate weapon set.

I opt to split my playthrough on Unreal difficulty into two parts due to the Artillery Behemoths which is coincidently my least favorite part of the map. Oh well, that can be forgiven and the wonderful map aesthetic makes up for any small gameplay flaws.

The Artillery Behemoths are easy to kill. Just don't go down the stairs and snipe at them until they're dead. Half the time, one will try to go up the stairs and then fall down off the side, making it a 1v1 battle which is even easier.